Below is a collage of the logos of national level institutes and universities of Odisha. (IIIT is trying to get there.) Note that except NIT Rourkela, which started as an REC in 1961 and became NIT in 2002, the rest have been established in the last 5 years:

Official sources said nine private agencies have submitted an expression of interest for the ambitious project that would be undertaken in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

According to the proposal, setting up the institute involves an expenditure of Rs 128 crore of which Rs 54 crore will be provided by the Centre. The state government will invest Rs 45 crore and the remaining amount will be contributed by the private agency that takes up the project. The institute will come up on 50 acres allocated by the state government free of cost.

Commissioner-cum-secretary of the state information technology department Pradeep Kumar Jena said the proposal would be sent to the Centre after a private partner for the venture was finalised.

“The location (of the institute) will be decided by the private concern,” said Jena. He said the aim of the institute would be to provide state-of-the-art facilities to produce professionals in the field of information technology.

Since the state is putting 45 crores and giving 50 acres free land, it should pick the private entity that agrees to the earlier announced location of Berhampur.

The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing at Kancheepuram is all set to become an institution of national importance with Parliament today approving a bill in this regard. … Replying to a debate on the bill, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said there was need for more such institutes particularly in backward states like Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan besides Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast. He said if the state governments wanted to set up such institutes, the Centre would provide all assistance.

Odisha should not delay in pushing for the proposed IIIT in Berhampur.

After all this background study, and a lot of discussions, IIIT-Delhi finally decided to take the lead and shift to requiring only Maths as a necessary pre-requisite for applying for admission to BTech(IT). Of course, the Institute still will have an aptitude test for selection.

However, this seems to be only useful for students from Delhi. (Please double-check at the IIIT Delhi website.) I.e., Delhi Plus 2 arts students with Maths will be eligible to the BTech(IT) program of IIIT Delhi.

Although there are 15% seats for out-side Delhi students, these students have to take AIEEE.

One of the things that he should consider pursuing is a medical school as part of NIT Rourkela, perhaps in collaboration with SAIL and/or the state government. In general, Prof. Sarangi should aim for expanding NIT Rourkela with additional programs, while also improving the existing ones.

Perhaps this committee had inside information on the new IIITs. If they are going to make only 6 of the proposed 20 now, Odisha (and Berhampur) need to pursue hard to be one of those early locations. So far I have come across news items regarding new IIITs in the following states. It is not clear if the central govt. selectively approached a subset of the proposed 20 (that includes these states) or if they approached all and only some of them went to the media.

HRD minister Kapil Sibal had set up the panel under former Infosys human resources head TV Mohandas Pai to recommend for selection of private partners for the project, which was announced in 2008.

… The panel has recommended that only a consortium of between three and five firms be allowed to partner the Centre for each IIIT and individual firms be barred from partnering solo on an IIIT. Both IT and non-IT companies can partner under the Pai panel’s blueprint.

Each industry partner will need to invest at least Rs 2 crore, and the industry consortium must contribute 15% of the funding required for the IIIT, except in northeast states where they need to provide just 7.5% of the funds. The states government will provide 35% of the funds while the Centre will provide the largest chunk — 50% in most states and 57.5% in northeastern states.

Only members of industry bodies like Assocham, Ficci or CII are eligible and public-listed firms, which have been in operation for at least five years will be preferred. The same company can be a part of consortiums running different IIITs.

The private partners — who are expected to benefit from a steady stream of students entering their industry — will have 25% seats in the Board of Governors, under the blueprint.

The "M" in IIITM Gwalior stands for "management", but the "M" in IIITDM Jabalpur and Kancheepuram stands for "manufacturing". The "D" stands for "design". I hope the above mentioned IIIT in Odisha has programs in management, design and manufacturing.

Besides the above there are several IIITs that are part state government funded. Those are: IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Bangalore, IIIT Bhubaneswar and IIIT Delhi. There are several other IIITs that are privately funded.

Kolkata, Feb 17 (IANS) The central government has approved the plan to set up an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in West Bengal, the state’s Information Technology Minister Debesh Das said here Thursday.

The Himachal Pradesh government today said an Indian Institute of Information Technology will soon be set up in the state.

"We have been demanding an IIIT for last one year and are satisfied with the Centre’s response. The union government had asked whether the state could provide the land and funding for the project, and we gave an affirmative reply."

The Indian government has decided to set up an advanced institute to combat cybercrime. The proposed Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) will groom IT professionals. The proposed institute will also develop advanced technologies to tackle cybercrime. The institute will be set up at a cost of INR100 crore on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The cost will be jointly borne by the Central government, concerned state government depending upon the location of the institute and the industry The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A) will finalize the concept and details of the proposed institute.

So far there is no recent news on the proposed IIIT in Berhampur, Odisha.

The Union HRD ministry has written to the state government, expressing its willingness to allot one IIIT to the state. It has asked for proposals to be submitted immediately.

In response to this, Mr Damodara Rajanarasimha, minister for higher and technical education, said: “We have convened a meeting with officials of higher and technical education departments to discuss the Centre’s proposal this week. Initially, we will identify the suitable cities and about 50 acres required for the purpose of setting up the institute. Based on this, we will submit a report to the UMHRD after shortlisting the location.”

The Union Cabinet today approved the setting up of 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) with a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with an outlay of ` 2808.71 crore (` 2558.71 crore for non recurring, ` 200 crore for recurring expenditure and ` 50.00 crore for faculty development expenditure). The proposal includes:

• The capital cost of each IIIT will be ` 128.00 crore to be contributed in the ratio of 50: 35: 15 by the Central Govt, the State Govt, and the industry respectively (57.5 : 35: 7.5 in case of North-Eastern region). In addition, ` 50.00 crore will be provided by the Central Government for faculty development programme for the faculty of new IIITs as well as existing IIlTs and IISERs. During the first four years of setting up each IIIT, the Central Government will provide partial support towards the recurring expenditure upto ` 10 crore to each IIIT depending upon actual requirement of IIIT.

• The project shall start from the financial year 2011-12 with setting up 5-10 IIITs depending upon the response of the State Governments and private partners.

• Each IIIT shall meet its operating expenditure on its own within 5 years of commencement out of students fees, research and other internal accruals.

• The concerned State Government will provide 50-100 acres of land, free of cost.

• In principle approval for introducing the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Act, 2010 for setting up new IIITs and declaring them as Institutes of National Importance. Since this process is time consuming, the IIITs may, initially, be registered as Societies under the Societies Registration Act 1860.

• To put in place a tripartite MoU document spelling out the role and responsibilities of private partners vis-a-vis that of the Government. • To work out the modalities and detailed plan for the faculty development for new IIITs as well as existing IIITs and IISERs in consultation with the Ministry of Finance.

The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IITs) will be world-class Institutes and will be set up as autonomous institutes based on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. Each Institute is meant to specialize in application of IT skills in one or more domain areas. One of the important criteria for setting up IIIT in a State will be availability of 50-100 acres of contiguous land or a minimum of 50 acres of land, with additional land available at another site in the State, which shall be made available, free of cost, for the establishment of the Institute. Initial capital for establishment of the Institute shall be contributed by the Central, State Governments concerned and industry.

The new IIITs will produce world-class high quality technical personnel, which will generate manpower for emerging industries, science departments and laboratories. This will, in turn contribute to the development of industries and finally boost the economic growth of the country. IIITs will develop professional expertise and skilled manpower in IT and its applications to certain domain areas.

In order to set up 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) with a public private partnership (PPP) model, the Centre has decided to introduce the Institutes of Information Technology Bill 2010 in the Budget session of the Parliament.

The Human Resource Development Ministry has prepared the draft Bill to allow the setting up of institutes in PPP mode which can function with complete autonomy and at the same time with professionalism and integrity. The Bill also proposes to declare the IIIT, Kancheepuram, Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra IIIT, Jabalpur, Atal Bihari Vajpayee IIIT, Gwalior and IIIT, Allahabad as institutions of national importance, retaining the individuality and autonomy of each institute.

The new IIITs would offer under-graduate, masters and PhD programmes.

Each institute will have an intake capacity of about 1,000 students within a period of six to seven years of their functioning.

The capital cost of each IIIT would be `128 crore to be contributed in the ratio of 50:35:15 by the central government, the state government and the industry respectively. Land for the institutes would be provided by the states, for a completely integrated campus with science and technology parks.

Each institute will specialise on specific area of Information Technology and each IIIT would be a centre of excellence in that domain. The project would start from the financial year 2011-12 with setting up five to 10 IIITs depending upon the response of the state governments and private partners, according to sources.